Complex, large-scale networks exist in systems ranging from transportation to communications, water and power distribution, ecology, climate, biology and more. Complex large-scale networks include critical lifeline infrastructure networks, such as water distribution pipelines, power grids, railways, roadways, seaports, airports, and telecommunication networks, including the Internet. These critical lifeline infrastructure networks are subject to threats from natural and human-made hazards, such as severe weather events, power outages, climate extremes, terrorism, and cybercrime. Aging infrastructures, connectivity of lifeline functions, competition for resources, urbanization and movement towards coastlines have increased pressures on these critical networks.
The resilience of networks to various threats has been examined, particularly in the context of specific types of hazard and infrastructure and using known fragility models or component-level resource constraints. However, these studies have not provided any practical methods or tools for recovering a network that has been disrupted, particularly where component-specific information is not known.